UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
Filed 1/9/97
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
HASKELL WILLIAMS,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v. No. 96-6121
(D.C. No. CIV-95-542-T)
LARRY FIELDS; SUSAN (W.D. Okla.)
WALLACE, DELORES RAMSEY;
JOHN WILSON; MICHAEL
ADDISON; BARBARA WRIGHT;
MICHAEL CODY; GAYLE KRIEN;
BILL BENNETT; KEN HOLLOWAY;
MARK SHIPMAN; OKLAHOMA
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,
Defendants-Appellees.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before EBEL and HENRY, Circuit Judges, and DOWNES, ** District Judge.
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. The court
generally disfavors the citation of orders and judgments; nevertheless, an order
and judgment may be cited under the terms and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
**
Honorable William F. Downes, District Judge, United States District Court
for the District of Wyoming, sitting by designation.
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of
this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a); 10th Cir. R. 34.1.9. The case is therefore
ordered submitted without oral argument.
Plaintiff Haskell Williams, an Oklahoma state prisoner appearing pro se,
appeals from the district court’s entry of judgment in favor of defendants in this
civil rights suit filed pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. We have jurisdiction under 28
U.S.C. § 1291, and affirm.
Plaintiff sued the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC), its director,
and several DOC employees, seeking the recalculation of his earned credits and
damages. Plaintiff claims he was illegally kept in custody beyond the date on
which he should have been released.
On defendants’ motion to dismiss or for summary judgment, the magistrate
judge found that the DOC was entitled to dismissal based on its Eleventh
Amendment immunity, and that the individual defendants sued in their official
capacities were entitled to dismissal because they were not “persons” within the
meaning of § 1983. The magistrate judge further found that plaintiff failed to
show that each of the remaining defendants personally participated in the alleged
violation of his constitutional rights, or that his procedural rights were not
adequately safeguarded. Finally, the magistrate judge found that it was only after
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the suit was filed and defendants had filed their motion to dismiss or for summary
judgment that plaintiff first provided a factual basis for his allegation that
defendants erred in computing his sentence. Because defendants then
recalculated plaintiff’s discharge date, applied the extra time served to plaintiff’s
sentence on a new charge, and expunged a prison disciplinary action taken after
plaintiff’s correct discharge date, the magistrate judge found that plaintiff could
not show defendants were deliberately indifferent to his rights to support an
Eighth Amendment claim. Plaintiff filed objections to the magistrate judge’s
report and recommendation, arguing that he had made out an Eighth Amendment
claim and that defendants were not entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity.
The district court adopted the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation,
adding only that all of the defendants sued in their official capacities were also
entitled to Eleventh Amendment immunity.
On appeal, plaintiff contends that: (1) defendants are not entitled to
Eleventh Amendment immunity because they admitted in the district court that
they made a mistake in computing plaintiff’s sentence; (2) defendants each
personally participated in the alleged violation of his rights because he
complained to them of the asserted error in his sentence; and (3) defendants were
deliberately indifferent to his illegal confinement because they did not correct the
error until after he filed suit.
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Plaintiff did not raise his second argument in his objections to the
magistrate judge’s report and it is therefore waived. See Moore v. United States,
950 F.2d 656, 659 (10th Cir. 1991). Otherwise, we have carefully reviewed the
briefs and the record on appeal. Plaintiff’s remaining claims of error are without
merit. We affirm for substantially the same reasons as those set forth in the
magistrate judge’s thorough and well-supported February 2, 1996 report and
recommendation, as adopted by the district court in its March 18, 1996 order.
The judgment of the United States District Court for the Western District of
Oklahoma is AFFIRMED. The mandate shall issue forthwith.
Entered for the Court
William F. Downes
District Judge
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